1950s Welch’s Restaurant | Long Beach, CA - 1950s

And wow, what a gorgeous building! We're struck by the overhanging walkway with its circular window onto the parking lot, a detail which leaves us wanting to see more. Happily, that hunger is partly satisfied by Maynard L. Parker's fantastic black and white photographs of the building, in the Huntington's collections.


Parker's undated photographs, commissioned by architect Larry Saunders soon after completion, reveal how the barrel formed the semi-circular well of the Japanese-style cocktail bar, the meandering interior water feature dotted with aquatic flowers and, mysteriously, an apparently unbroken roof line leading out to the parking lot, while George's undated photo shows a clear break with the sections at different heights and possibly shortened, apparently a later remodel.